THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

January 22, 1999

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
ON KEEPING AMERICA SECURE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

National Academy of Sciences
Washington, D.C.

10:30 A.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. Jamie, Dr. Lederberg, I'd
like to thank you for your service in this and so many other ways.
I would like to thank Sandy Berger for many things, including
indulging my nagging on this subject for the better part of six
years now.

I was so relieved that Dr. Lederberg not very long ago -- well,
last year -- brought a distinguished panel of experts together to
discuss this bioterrorism threat, because I then had experts to
cite on my concern and nobody thought I was just reading too many
novels late at night. (Laughter.)

Madame Attorney General, Secretary Shalala, Secretary
Richardson, Director Witt, Deputy Secretary Hamre, Commandant of
the Coast Guard and our other military leaders who are here, Mr.
Clarke, ladies and gentlemen. I'm delighted to be here to discuss
this subject. With some trepidation, Sandy Berger noted that Dr.
Lederberg won a Nobel Prize at 33, and I was governor you can
infer from that that I was not very good at chemistry and biology.
(Laughter.)

But any democracy is imbued with the responsibility of ordinary
citizens who do not have extraordinary expertise to meet the
challenges of each new age. And that is what we are all trying to
do. Our country has always met the challenges of those who would
do us harm. At the heart of our national defense I have always
believed is our attempt to live by our values -- democracy,
freedom, equal opportunity. We are working hard to fulfill these
values at home. And we are working with nations around the world
to advance them, to build a new era of interdependence where
nations work together -- not simply for peace and security, but
also for better schools and health care, broader prosperity, a
cleaner environment and a greater involvement by citizens
everywhere in shaping their own future.

In the struggle to defend our people and values and to advance
them wherever possible, we confront threats both old and new --
open borders and revolutions in technology have spread the message
and the gifts of freedom but have also given new opportunities to
freedom's enemies. Scientific advances have opened the possibility
of longer, better lives. They have also given the enemies of
freedom new opportunities.

Last August, at Andrews Air Force Base, I grieved with the
families of the brave Americans who lost their lives at our
embassy in Kenya. They were in Africa to promote the values
America shares with friends of freedom everywhere -- and for that
they were murdered by terrorists. So, too, were men and women in
Oklahoma City, at the World Trade Center, Khobar Towers, on Pan Am
103.

The United States has mounted an aggressive response to
terrorism -- tightening security for our diplomats, our troops,
our air travelers, improving our ability to track terrorist
activity, enhancing cooperation with other countries,
strengthening sanctions on nations that support terrorists.

Since 1993, we have tripled funding for FBI anti-terrorist
efforts. Our agents and prosecutors, with excellent support from
our intelligence agencies, have done extraordinary work in
tracking down perpetrators of terrorist acts and bringing them to
justice. And as our air strikes against Afghanistan -- or against
the terrorist camps in Afghanistan -- last summer showed, we are
prepared to use military force against terrorists who harm our
citizens. But all of you know the fight against terrorism is far
from over. And now, terrorists seek new tools of destruction.

Last May, at the Naval Academy commencement, I said terrorist
and outlaw states are extending the world's fields of battle, from
physical space to cyberspace, from our earth's vast bodies of
water to the complex workings of our own human bodies. The enemies
of peace realize they cannot defeat us with traditional military
means. So they are working on two new forms of assault, which
you've heard about today: cyber attacks on our critical computer
systems, and attacks with weapons of mass destruction -- chemical,
biological, potentially even nuclear weapons. We must be ready --
ready if our adversaries try to use computers to disable power
grids, banking, communications and transportation networks,
police, fire and health services -- or military assets.

More and more, these critical systems are driven by, and linked
together with, computers, making them more vulnerable to
disruption. Last spring, we saw the enormous impact of a single
failed electronic link, when a satellite malfunctioned -- disabled
pagers, ATMs, credit card systems and television networks all
around the world. And we already are seeing the first wave of
deliberate cyber attacks -- hackers break into government and
business computers, stealing and destroying information, raiding
bank accounts, running up credit card charges, extorting money by
threats to unleash computer viruses.

The potential for harm is clear. Earlier this month, an ice
storm in this area crippled power systems, plunging whole
communities into darkness and disrupting daily lives. We have to
be ready for adversaries to launch attacks that could paralyze
utilities and services across entire regions. We must be ready if
adversaries seek to attack with weapons of mass destruction, as
well. Armed with these weapons, which can be compact and
inexpensive, a small band of terrorists could inflict tremendous
harm.

Four years ago, though, the world received a wake-up call when
a group unleashed a deadly chemical weapon, nerve gas, in the
Tokyo subway. We have to be ready for the possibility that such a
group will obtain biological weapons. We have to be ready to
detect and address a biological attack promptly, before the
disease spreads. If we prepare to defend against these emerging
threats we will show terrorists that assaults on America will
accomplish nothing but their own downfall.

Let me say first what we have done so far to meet this
challenge. We've been working to create and strengthen the
agreement to keep nations from acquiring weapons of mass
destruction, because this can help keep these weapons away from
terrorists, as well. We're working to ensure the effective
implementation of the Chemical Weapons Convention; to obtain an
accord that will strengthen compliance with the biological weapons
convention; to end production of nuclear weapons material. We must
ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty to end nuclear tests once
and for all.

As I proposed Tuesday in the State of the Union Address, we
should substantially increase our efforts to help Russia and other
former Soviet nations prevent weapons material and knowledge from
falling into the hands of terrorists and outlaw states. In no
small measure we should do this by continuing to expand our
cooperative work with the thousands of Russian scientists who can
be used to advance the causes of world peace and health and
well-being, but who if they are not paid, remain a fertile field
for the designs of terrorists.

But we cannot rely solely on our efforts to keep weapons from
spreading. We have to be ready to act if they do spread. Last
year, I obtained from Congress a 39 percent budget increase for
chemical and biological weapons preparedness. This is helping to
accelerate our ongoing effort to train and equip fire, police and
public health personnel all across our country to deal with
chemical and biological emergencies. It is helping us to ready
armed forces and National Guard units in every region to meet this
challenge; and to improve our capacity to detect an outbreak of
disease and save lives; to create the first ever civilian
stockpile of medicines to treat people exposed to biological and
chemical hazards; to increase research and development on new
medicines and vaccines to deal with new threats.

Our commitment to give local communities the necessary tools
already goes beyond paper and plans. For example, parked just
outside this building is a newly designed truck we have provided
to the Arlington, Virginia, Fire Department. It can rapidly assist
and prevent harm to people exposed to chemical and biological
dangers.

But our commitment on the cyber front has been strong, as well.
We've created special offices within the FBI and the Commerce
Department to protect critical systems against cyber attack. We're
building partnerships with the private sector to find and reduce
vulnerabilities; to improve warning systems; to rapidly recover if
attacks occur. We have an outstanding public servant in Richard
Clarke, who is coordinating all these efforts across our
government.

Today, I want to announce the new initiatives we will take, to
take us to the next level in preparing for these emerging threats.
In my budget, I will ask Congress for $10 billion to address
terrorism and terrorist-emerging tools. This will include nearly
$1.4 billion to protect citizens against chemical and biological
terror -- more than double what we spent on such programs only two
years ago.

We will speed and broaden our efforts, creating new local
emergency medical teams, employing in the field portable detection
units the size of a shoe box to rapidly identify hazards; tying
regional laboratories together for prompt analysis of biological
threats. We will greatly accelerate research and development,
centered in the Department of Health and Human Services, for new
vaccines, medicines and diagnostic tools.

I should say here that I know everybody in this crowd
understands this, but everyone in America must understand this:
the government has got to fund this. There is no market for the
kinds of things we need to develop; and if we are successful,
there never will be a market for them. But we have got to do our
best to develop them. These cutting-edge efforts will address not
only the threat of weapons of mass destruction, but also the
equally serious danger of emerging infectious diseases. So we will
benefit even if we are successful in avoiding these attacks.

The budget proposal will also include $1.46 billion to protect
critical systems from cyber and other attacks. That's 40 percent
more than we were spending two years ago. Among other things, it
will help to fund four new initiatives. First, an intensive
research effort to detect intruders trying to break into critical
computer systems. Second, crime -- excuse me detection networks,
first for our Defense Department, and later for other key agencies
so when one critical computer system is invaded, others will be
alerted instantly. And we will urge the private sector to create
similar structures.

Third, the creation of information centers in the private
sector so that our industries can work together and with
government to address cyber threats. Finally, we'll ask for
funding to bolster the government's ranks of highly skilled
computer experts -- people capable of preventing and responding to
computer crises.

To implement this proposal, the Cyber Corps program, we will
encourage federal agencies to train and retrain computer
specialists, as well as recruiting gifted young people out of
college.

In all our battles, we will be aggressive. At the same time I
want you to know that we will remain committed to uphold privacy
rights and other constitutional protections, as well as the
proprietary rights of American businesses. It is essential that we
do not undermine liberty in the name of liberty. We can prevail
over terrorism by drawing on the very best in our free society --
the skill and courage of our troops, the genius of our scientists
and engineers, the strength of our factory workers, the
determination and talents of our public servants, the vision of
leaders in every vital sector.

I have tried as hard as I can to create the right frame of mind
in America for dealing with this. For too long the problem has
been that not enough has been done to recognize the threat and
deal with it. And we in government, frankly, weren't as well
organized as we should have been for too long. I do not want the
pendulum to swing the other way now, and for people to believe
that every incident they read about in a novel or every incident
they see in a thrilling movie is about to happen to them within
the next 24 hours.

What we are seeing here, as any military person in the audience
can tell you, is nothing more than a repetition of weapons systems
that goes back to the beginning of time. An offensive weapons
system is developed, and it takes time to develop the defense. And
then another offensive weapon is developed that overcomes that
defense, and then another defense is built up -- as surely as
castles and moats held off people with spears and bows and arrows
and riding horses, and the catapult was developed to overcome the
castle and the moat.

But because of the speed with which change is occurring in our
society -- in computing technology, and particularly in the
biological sciences -- we have got to do everything we can to make
sure that we close the gap between offense and defense to nothing,
if possible. That is the challenge here.

We are doing everything we can, in ways that I can and in ways
that cannot discuss, to try to stop people who would misuse
chemical and biological capacity from getting that capacity. This
is not a cause for panic -- it is a cause for serious, deliberate,
disciplined, long-term concern. And I am absolutely convinced that
if we maintain our clear purpose and our strength of will, we will
prevail here. And thanks to so many of you in this audience, and
your colleagues throughout the United States, and like-minded
people throughout the world, we have better than a good chance of
success. But we must be deliberate, and we must be aggressive.